Park Plaza gains full ownership of three London hotels

The hotel group Park Plaza has acquired full ownership of three London Hotels that it had previously operated under contract.

At the close of 2010, the group, which previously owned 50 per cent or more of each hotel, purchased the outstanding interest in Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes Hotel, Park Plaza Victoria Hotel and Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel from a subsidiary of Elbit Imaging.

The purchase and sale agreement, for a price of £21m, due to be paid in instalments between now and the end of 2017, also included 1m Park Plaza shares being admitted to trading on AIM.

Profit and loss

In 2009, the three hotels made a loss of £5.4m, although this included accrued but unpaid management fees of £7.5m. According to Boris Ivesha, Park Plaza’s chief executive officer, the hotels are well established in London, and are performing well.

In the first six months of the 2010 financial year, the three hotels reported improvements in RevPAR (revenue per available room), which reached £100.2. According to data provided by TRI Hospitality, this is 7.4 per cent ahead of its competitive set.

By the end of this year, the three hotel companies are expected to have a bank debt of £179m. The most recent valuation of the hotels, after the deduction of debt, indicates that the acquired assets have a net value of £26.2m.

Park Plaza group

Overall, the Park Plaza Hotels group currently has over 35 hotels and aparthotels and 7,000 rooms around Europe, the Middle East and Africa. By the end of 2012, it aims to increase room numbers to over 13,000 through franchise agreements and other planned projects.

Amongst projects in the pipeline are the Park Plaza Nuremberg and art’otel Amsterdam, both due to be completed in 2011, as well as art’otel London hoxton, due to be completed in 2013.